Flybe to raise £155m to lift off flagging domestic flight business

FLYBE has unveiled plans to raise £155million from shareholders to revive its struggling UK business.

PUBLISHED: 00:00, Fri, Feb 21, 2014

Flybe has withdrawn 30 under-performing routes from its summer schedule this year [PH]

The regional airline wants to expand into new routes and develop its contract business on behalf of other airlines. Its move follows a doubling of flights to ­Newquay in Cornwall after flooding cut the main railway to the South-west.

Chief executive Saad Hammad said: “No one likes to see flooding and we are there to help.”

The carrier’s UK business has struggled as fewer ­business travellers and ­people visiting families have flown during the economic downturn. But it has fought back by running short-haul flights for Finnair and is talking to other European flag carriers.

Flybe has also slashed hundreds of jobs and is closing six aircraft and crew bases in Scotland, the Isle of Man, the Channel Islands and Newcastle, leaving it with seven bases.

It has taken 30 under-­performing routes out of its summer 2014 schedule ­leaving it with 119 routes and has changed frequencies on another 25 routes.

Hammad said: “We plan to move from the back foot to the front foot.” Shares closed 6p up at 121p.